Lay offs

sonny

Greetings,
We are facing laying off two employees. We seldom do this and last time we did, we just sent the employee home b/c frankly it was as much a performance issue as anything else.
This time one of the ee's has been here over 14 years. .Those of you with more experience. .how do you handle this? Send them home immeadiately? Allow them to work a week or so to say their goodbyes? Have a small gathering? HELP, I HATE THIS.

KSR6450

Unfortunately I just went through this. Our CEO let the ee's stay a few days and it was a mistake. They came to work in jeans and sweatshirts and left when they pleased. They also spread fear that - "You could be next". I guess it depends on the person; I never believed these ee's would behave so childishly (one is in her 70's) and they hurt morale with this behavior. Especially if the person could access data that is proprietary (loan files. etc.) it is best to ask them to leave immediately.

Everywhere else I worked we let the ee's go and they were gone - from now on that is how it will be handled here as well.

Tony Kessler

Sorry you're going through this. You'll probably get some good feedback from the other HR pros on this Forum. Coincidentally, we are holding a live 90-minute audio event on this subject tomorrow (Thursday, Feb. 5). Here is a link for more information. tk

[url]www.hrhero.com/audio/firewithoutfear/?home[/url]

sonny

Thanks. . ya wanna waive the $237 Tony. .???

KSR. . thanks. . I have certainly heard your arguments before, but also fear as people just disappear the rumor mill will be even worse in terms of who is next. .

Others who have not had KSR experience?

NaeNae55

In 2000 and 2001 we ended one of our lines of business. This resulted in lots of displaced employees (2/3 of our staff). Top management decided what jobs would be essential, and then posted them all (included CEO) and allowed employees to apply for as many as they pleased. Employees who were not chosen were given a bonus for staying until their positions were no longer needed. Some stayed, and some did not. Many employees were able to find jobs at our parent company. The CEO checked the want ads every day and even called at least one other CEO to recommend one of our employees for a position (and she got it). It was a very painful process, but most understood. One of my reports who managed to find a good job even came back and worked evenings for me to help me keep my head above water. We still stay in touch.

Some of the short term employees did their best to get as much out of us as possible, while giving as little as possible in return. One of the managers appeared to feel pushed out. Other than that, people were just sad but understood.

I think how you handle this really depends on your culture and your situation. If you decide to have the employee go immediately, try to at least pay them some severance. Knowing they are still being paid while they are out looking will help reduce the immediate shock and strain.

Whatever happens, this will be a tough time for all of you. Your bosses might consider reducing everyone's pay instead of layoffs next time. I understand that this method helps reinforce employee morale and loyalty, making the company much better off in the long run, while still helping the bottom line in the short run.

Good luck!

Nae

plynnl

We have a very small company and we knew we had to lay off two employees. It was painful and we were not able to give them severance. One was asked to leave immediately and one stayed on for a couple of days with no problem.

When we felt we had to lay off a third employee all of us remaining offered to take a percentage cut in pay to save the his job at least for the first quarter of this year. After the first quarter we should be able to reinstate the original salaries and make up the difference of the percentage loss over the rest of 2009. (Hopefully)

jennifer jo

Unfortunately we are looking at layoffs too. Typically, it depends on the position as to how we handle it. Since I work in mental health a lot of our employees are clinical staff. We give a 30 day severance for a RIF and as the clinicians to ensure that all of the paperwork is caught up and in the file. We let them go as soon as they finish up what needs to be done. It has worked well for us because the employees don't feel pushed out the door, but they do like to leave a.s.a.p. I guess for us it works because when someone is terminated they are asked to pack up their things immediately and are (discreetly, we used to think) monitored and walked out the door. Hope that helps. Will be back with my RIF questions soon...

ACU Frank

I'm a little concerned about one segment of Sonny's original post, in which he mentions the time they did this because of a performance issue. I think we have to be VERY careful to use the term "layoff" only when it is appropriate - not when it is based on performance.

Generally speaking, a layoff implies that economic conditions necessitate trimming the workforce (lack of work, lost a contract, etc.). In turn, that implies that if economic conditions improve, the workforce may be enlarged. If you let someone go because of economic conditions, they will generally assume they are eligible for rehire.

So... If you connect these dots, as tenuous as they may be, you'll see that you don't want to use the term "layoff" unless you are prepared to bring these same individuals back if conditions improve. If it's performance-based, it's a discharge, or a termination, or any number of other terms, but probably NOT a layoff. Same with a RIF or a 'restructuring'. The exception would be if you can demonstrate that the employees you terminated were the ones with the lowest performance levels, and if that's the case you'd better communicate it and be ready to back it up.

sonny

thank you all !! Good feedback. .
Believe me Frank. .I know what you are saying, ,I just couldn't convince those above me. .
Both of these are truly lack of work. .

KSR6450

What if you let people go for 'lack of work' but they are the ones responsible for creating their work? Hypothetically speaking of course, if you had a 'sales person' who dealt primarily with a market that dried up but this 'sales person' did not actively look for any sales either - is that a performance issue or layoff due to lack of work? We would chose to view it as a layoff and if the market were to rebound these people would be eligible for rehire.

Also, we did pay a severance to the individuals we let go.

sonny

I'm back!! How many of you have ee being laid off sign release/severance agreements???

plynnl

No they did not sign releases or agreements and it was understood that we would not
challenge their unemployment claims.

KSR6450

Same as plynnl - no agreements or releases and we will not challenge the UI claim.

mbeam

We experienced this when we closed one operation and moved it to another location. We made the announcement and gave the timeframes for when it would happen along with a severance and stay packages. We based our selection for who stayed longer on a combination of performance and longevity.

In addition, we had the local UI contact come in to help facilitate the paperwork as well as training sessions for Microsoft programs and helped those being displaced with resumes, cover letters and interview workshops.

We also met one on one to let people know what to expect and to cover questions they had especially as it related to benefits.

In this situation, we had time to plan for this in advance which helped.

Whatever you can do to help make a really tough situation helps difuse it as those remaining pay close attention to how you treat their co-workers (and so do their/your customers). I had customers contacting me to tell me that they weren't happy about losing their contact but appreciated that we treated them respectfully and did what we could to take care of them.